Embedded Files
"Just like in Hmong, you can do the same thing in English... But there's a difference to be aware of."
Seven-year old Key raises his hand often to participate, sometimes saying with confidence, “Wow, I’m a genius”, even when his answers aren’t correct. Key is learning literacy in both Hmong and English. A bilingual education has helped foster pride in Key’s Hmong culture and language skills; last year, he bravely sang a Hmong song for the talent show even though he is still developing his Hmong language skills.
Seven-year old Key raises his hand often to participate, sometimes saying with confidence, “Wow, I’m a genius”, even when his answers aren’t correct. Key is learning literacy in both Hmong and English. A bilingual education has helped foster pride in Key’s Hmong culture and language skills; last year, he bravely sang a Hmong song for the talent show even though he is still developing his Hmong language skills.
Key’s teacher, Pa, has been collaborating with teachers to accelerate Key’s biliteracy development explaining, “academically, he’s not where he’s supposed to be”. Though Key is proud of the work he can do, he can get frustrated and give up if he has to independently complete work. At the end of his first grade year, he was able to demonstrate most of his letter sounds and is currently working on how to decode and blend sounds together to make a word. Pa set out to develop a plan for Key’s instruction and began with observation in two languages.
Key’s teacher, Pa, has been collaborating with teachers to accelerate Key’s biliteracy development explaining, “academically, he’s not where he’s supposed to be”. Though Key is proud of the work he can do, he can get frustrated and give up if he has to independently complete work. At the end of his first grade year, he was able to demonstrate most of his letter sounds and is currently working on how to decode and blend sounds together to make a word. Pa set out to develop a plan for Key’s instruction and began with observation in two languages.
Observe
Observe
Pa used her small group instruction time to pay close attention to student Key and his behaviors in text. In one session, she observed his foundational skills in Hmong and took notes. In a later session, she observed these skills in English. She used the observation framework to record what she noticed.
Analyze
Analyze
Pa's next step was to make sense of her observations. She began by thinking about what she knew of Key's oral language, referring back to an oral language sample she captured. Then, she looked at Key's skills across components and comparing Hmong with English. She asked herself, what might be a strength on which I can build? This is the Transliteracy opportunity.
Teach
Teach
Pa's analysis revealed that Key was using sound segmenting as a strategy for solving words in Hmong, but he was not applying this yet in English. She designed a Transliteracy lesson that recognized how Key knows to segment in Hmong. She then planned subsequent steps to teach him how this can be applied in English. Pa was careful to point out language-specific differences in applying this strategy, explaining "Just like in Hmong, you can do the same thing in English...but there's a difference to be aware of". Pa went onto explain how words in Hmong have only two phonemes (sounds), but English words can have more. She distinguished this by using her arm for movement along with slow articulation.
two phonemes in Hmong
two phonemes in Hmong
three phonemes in English
three phonemes in English
Reflect
Reflect
Reflecting on the experience, Pa shared the following:
My student is still working on his phonological awareness. I believe that if he’s able to hear all the sounds in a word by segmenting and blending, this will help him greatly in reading. I noticed that my student was more successful at segmenting in Hmong and so I wanted to apply that skill in English. It took him a while before he was segmenting on his own in Hmong. I think this was because I gave instructions in English and was asking him to do the activity in Hmong. Normally if I’m working on a skill in Hmong, I use only the Hmong language and vice versa in English.
This made me think about our class discussion. Is it really a bilingual program if students are learning the two languages separately and there is no cross language analysis? This experience at the beginning of my lesson gave me a clearer idea of why we need a transliteracy model. I need to approach my student more by saying that he has a lot of skills and tools that he can use and it doesn’t only stay with one language. A skill learned in one language can be used and applied in another. Not only that but he can use both languages to make meaning of what he’s learning.
Pause and ponder
Pause and ponder
What literacy strategies call for language-specific differences?
Take action
Take action
Consider your upcoming teaching points, and how application might be different in one language or the other. Make a daily intention to illuminate this for your students!
Learn more
Learn more
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse